This seems wrong to me… The kid earned it… Seems like the teachers are being jerks…
Lodi High School Senior Devan Solanki is headed to Harvard University next fall. He has a 4.3 GPA. He is the class valedictorian. But administrators at his Bergen County, New Jersey, school won’t let him give the commencement speech at his June 23 graduation—allegedly because he has a history of disciplinary issues. Those issues don’t seem very serious, however, and certainly don’t justify the psychiatric evaluation he was forced to take after tersely asking a counselor for help resolving the dispute over his speech.
Solanki was recently informed that the task of giving the commencement address would no longer default to the class valedictorian. Instead, administrators would choose the speaker. Solanki wasn’t in the running, according to Principal Frank D’Amico, because of past disciplinary issues. They don’t seem like the kinds of issues that should disqualify him from speaking, however, according to nj.com:
An American Point of View 